1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cable television controllers and particularly to a cable television controller that is compatible with an existing cable converter for selectively blocking cable television programming.
2. Description of Related Art
It is becoming increasingly important to control the viewing of television and video programs by children on an ongoing basis, especially at times when personal supervision cannot be provided. Ideally, there should be agreed-upon ground rules regarding the channels that can be watched; the time of viewing such as specific days or hours of the day; and the total viewing time that is permitted per day, per week, or per month. Even with such agreement, effective management and enforcement becomes a formidable task for working parents.
In addition, while many television programs that are educational and/or suitable for children and/or youths are offered by cable channels, such as the Discovery Channel, Arts and Entertainment Channel, and the Disney Channel, there are an equal, if not greater, number of television programs that are not suitable for children. Such unsuitable programs include the Playboy Channel, certain adult Pay-per-view channels, and the like. With an increasing demand for programs offered by cable channels and thousands of cable companies providing cable service in the United States, such unsuitable cable channel programs have become increasingly accessible to children and youths.
One example of a parental control television system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,345 to Brian et al. The '345 patent discloses a TV/video viewing supervision system that enables a supervisor to selectively pre-program the hours, programs, and/or channels of television for viewing. The '345 patent provides the user with the option of either blocking selected channels/time periods or allowing selected channels/time periods for viewing. Although the '345 patent may be implemented by antenna-based systems, it is not readily adaptable to cable-based systems. That is, the supervision system of the '345 patent is not compatible with a standard stand-alone cable box. Thus, in order to block one or more channels of a standard cable box, the supervision system of the '345 patent must be integrated within the standard cable box. This may be undesirable and impracticable because there are a vast number of different cable boxes being used by cable companies.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a cable controller that is compatible with a vast number of existing cable converters for selectively blocking cable television programming without any modification to the cable converter hardware.